Eric Rosenthal

Who is Eric Rosenthal?

Eric Rosenthal is the Founder and Executive Director of Disability Rights International. Since establishing DRI in 1993, Rosenthal has trained human rights and disability activists and provided assistance to governments and international development organizations worldwide.

Rosenthal's path-breaking efforts brought world attention to the rights of people with disabilities, exposing a vacuum in international human rights advocacy that has now been filled by the growth of a new international disability rights movement. His documentation of abuses inflicted upon millions of children and adults with disabilities in more than 25 countries has led nations to end human rights violations and has attracted unprecedented attention from international media and government agencies.He is an often-heard voice before American and international human rights agencies and is widely credited for bringing attention to the rights of people with disabilities as a fundamental human rights issue. The worldwide attention Rosenthal brought to human rights violations against people with disabilities was instrumental in gaining United Nations support for adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, now ratified by 130 countries.